Schumer Plays Hardball on Cnooc

THE WALL STREET JOURNALFriday, July 27, 2012

CORPORATE NEWS

Schumer Plays Hardball on Cnooc, by Keith Johnson

WASHINGTON–Senator Charles Schumer said he would ask Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to use Cnooc Ltd.’s proposed $15 billion purchase of Canadian energy firm Nexen Inc. as leverage to pry open the Chinese market for U.S. companies,” that approval of the transaction should be withheld until China’s government makes enforceable commitments to ensure reciprocal treatment for U.S. companies. Mr. Schumer believes, according to this article, that approval of the Cnooc-Nexen transaction should be a test of these reciprocal agreements.

Mr. Schumer is playing hard with the Chinese in order to “level the playing field” for U.S. businesses. Hardball is used in Major League baseball. For more information go to http://www.sportsidioms and look up “baseball.”